How to close an ever increasing Business and IT gap
It’s always believed a gap existed between Business and IT and as we have witnessed over the past few years this is increasing. In most cases the factors often appear contradictory. But many technical and economic professionals believe the success of a company lies in their alignment and successful integration of both Business and IT strategies. There has to be a full understanding of the way IT services, technologies and apps will add to the objectives of a business, not only today but also tomorrow.
The alignment between the two is also possible there if there’s a clear focus shared across the board on the allocation of limited resources, money and time including exchanges an organisation needs to execute. Successful integration also demands a credible and effective working relationship between the entire business and the organisation of the IT as clearly indicated by daily operations, delivery of innovative solutions and responsive management of problems.
To close the gap between Business and IT, a number of things need to happen.
Communication must happen
To deal with a problem it’s important to first know if there’s a gap and the details of the problem if any. In a business, departments are always misunderstanding and agreeing in many areas and IT is not immune. IT department ensures all areas of a business aren’t just successful but productive. However, if IT begins operating in isolation there’ll be gaps. As initiatives are developed to create a supportable and stable IT environment, it’s important to ensure the entire organisation understands what IT does or currently doing is critical, for instance system installation, disaster recover and network upgrades. Communication ensures the gap existing between business operations and IT is eliminated.
Needs should be understood
Reducing the Business and IT gap requires an understanding of what’s needed and should happen. IT representatives or department needs to question what other areas of a business are doing to deal with issues, problems and accomplish their objectives. As internal stakeholders are asked about their needs, IT can then be able to focus on helping them accomplish these goals and dealing with issues that might come up.
Plans should be validated
When IT and other stakeholders don’t work together in an organisation, the result is usually solutions that are good but sometimes inappropriate. As such, the IT strategy of a company needs to be presented to the management team for validation and realignment with the company’s original plan and objectives. Essentially, both IT and senior management must guarantee the strategic plan addresses critical needs of a company, IT initiatives are appropriately prioritised as well as having the original plan agreeing with the IT strategies for support.
Third party option
Sometimes a third party can help to realign the needs of a business and appropriate technology. The IT provider offering the third party help has to be experienced, objective, willing to offer a company diverse options and be able to review and discuss technology in the language of the company. Eventually, the company will have efficient and comprehensive solutions provided to effectively close the gap between Business and IT.
If you have already noticed a gap between Business and IT (like in most organisations), don’t worry, we understand this is a headache for many. We have been solving this kind of problem for over 20 years now and understand why IT need to lead this initiative as can often be the reason for missed opportunities to drive revenue, grow market share, increase speed to market and improve customer satisfaction.
If this sounds like something you are keen to explore or maybe you are about to embark on a merger, acquisition or maybe you are even looking into the predictive analytics space. Whatever the future holds for your business, it’s guaranteed that information will be a key part. So it’s critical the core data is correct and trusted to ensure future success and accurate decision making.
Please feel free to call 01628 421512 or email us: enquiries@trustedbi.co.uk